


Of Coffee and Stars

by DeathViolinist



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Minor Allura/Pidge | Katie Holt, Minor Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Minor Lance/Romelle, Past Keith/Lotor (Voltron), SHEITH - Freeform, Trans Male Character, brief mentions of other pairings - Freeform, literal baby coran, shiro has both arms and hair is all black, the lions are all literal cats
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-29 03:06:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15720714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeathViolinist/pseuds/DeathViolinist
Summary: Keith had heard of them before soulmates that is. They were chosen by fate to be a pair, indicated by either matching or coordinating tattoos, or soulmarks as most people called them, marks that had been there since birth. The marks were rumored to cause various reactions between pairs. Some people reported feelings of going numb around the mark, as well as a tingling sensation and various other symptoms.Will Keith finally find his soulmate when a new coffee shop opens up next door to his curios shop? Or will he continue to believe that fate messed up and he was meant to end up alone?





	Of Coffee and Stars

Keith rubbed the last traces of sleep from his eyes, turns out he has fallen asleep across his counter in the back room of his curios shop, “The Shining Room” it has been so accurately named by his only coworker and best friend, Pidge. The raven haired male stretched, sighing in relief as his back popped, relieving the tension that built up from being hunched over all night. The man grimaced as he looked at his hand to find dried up grease and polish caked on his skin from the knife he had repaired and restored many hours prior. It took a few minutes, but soon enough his skin was cleaned, hands a bit red from the scrubbing. 

“It is too damn early for this,” he grumbled to himself as he pulled on his favorite hoodie. It was mainly red, with a panel of white covering the back from the shoulder seam down to the bottom of his shoulder blades, and the sleeves were red from the shoulder stretching down to the inside of the elbows at an angle where it was met with a deep orange color that started just above the elbow on the outside of the arm and followed the angle to start at the bottom of the elbow on the inside of the arm and went until the cuffs. The cuffs, hem, hood, and front pocket  of the jacket were a faded maroon color; as oddly colored at the jacket was, it was Keith’s most prized possession - the last gift from his parents before they left.

A demanding yowl sounded from his side, bringing a soft smile to the man’s face as he turned to face his baby: a bright orange, long-haired tabby with startling gold eyes. The feline meowed again before launching herself at Keith, forcing him to catch and hold her in his arms.

“Well, good morning to you too, Red,” He cooed with a light laugh as she headbutted his chin with a soft trill, “I know you don’t want to deal with me burning the coffee again today, so I am going to make the drive over to Alternate Realities Coffee and Bakery this morning before the shop opens.” Red looked at Keith as if she were trying to comprehend what he had said before simply meowing at him again.

“Yeah, tell me about it, I don’t want to open the store today either,” the raven told the feline before placing her down on the counter in the main store, filling her food bowl on his way out of the door, “Protect the shop, Red. I’ll be back soon.” Keith stepped outside, taking in a deep breath of the outside air and glanced around the small parking lot that was shared between his shop and the empty- well, used to be empty building next door. Violet eyes blinked in confusion at the chalkboard sign outside the door of his neighbouring shop, the word open doodled in large white letters. 

The adult’s curiosity got the better of him as his feet seemed to carry him to the front door without needing to make a conscious decision to do so. He read the paper sign taped up to the door and laughed lightly at the irony: Black Lion Coffee and Bistro. 

_ ‘Well, that saves me gas money and now I don’t have to go all the way across town. Another plus is that my drink will still be warm by the time I get back to the shop,’  _ Keith thought as he pulled the door open and stepped into the newest coffee shop in town. He took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of fresh baked pastries and fresh brewed coffee, one of his favorite scent combinations. The raven glanced around as he quietly made his way up to the counter to order; the shop was very homey in the way it was decorated and lit up, not too bright but not too dim either.

 

Shiro busily cleaned one of the espresso machines, most of their brewing equipment was covered in a light coating of dust from having to practically set up the entire shop overnight. Sure, the contractors had done majority of the work over the past week without drawing much attention to the small building, such as tearing apart and rebuilding almost the entirety of the kitchen as well as setting up and decorating the main room almost exactly like Shiro had imagined it would look, but the espresso machines and coffee pots had not arrived until the wee hours of the morning. The dark haired man had arrived as soon as he could to start setting the machinery up, prepping them to begin brewing in order to have hot coffee ready by the time they opened shop.

He wanted every part of his first day to be perfect. He had always loved making coffee; when he became a barista, he had been excited, but his old manager had been so annoying, with his pre-measured grounds and his insistence on no deviation from the original recipe of...well, anything. Slav, his prior employer had been a rather small-statured, mousy-looking man with large black framed glasses and seemed to be constantly talking about alternate realities and the percentages in which people would like their drink choice. All in all, a very taxing and frustrating man to deal with for the majority of the day. 

Shiro prided himself on being a very patient individual, but somehow, Slav had the ability to get on every nerve he owned, without fail. That was ultimately what drove his decision to  decide to open up his own shop, taking the pastry chef, a Polynesian by the name of Hunk, with him. Hunk had been overjoyed to the point of tears when Shiro had asked if he would leave Slav’s coffee shop with him, instantly agreeing with the terms that Shiro just give him free reign in the kitchen. The twenty-five year old glanced over at said chef who was visible in the window to the kitchen, finishing up on croissants. Hunk was so lucky to have already found his soulmate; a sweet Hawaiian girl named Shay. 

Shiro glanced down at his own tattoo a bit wistfully,  _ ‘Maybe someday I’ll find you…’ _  The twenty-seven year old carefully took the tray of croissants that were handed to him and placed the tray into the display case under the heat lamps. In doing this, he didn’t notice when the door was opened, perhaps due to the fact that he still hadn’t gotten around to putting the bell over the door. 

 

Keith took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of fresh coffee and some sort of buttery pastry, making his mouth salivate at the thought of food. Even just the scent of sustenance had his stomach growling something fierce, reminding him that the last time he had eaten was just under twenty-one hours ago - lunch from the previous day. Violet eyes wandered about what seemed to be the ordering counter, lighting up slightly at the sight of the golden croissants in the display case. The raven’s feet carried his over to the glass, a subtly shiver running down his spine at the way the heat seemed to leak from the case and wrap around the exposed skin of his hands that hovered just above the window, not wanting to smudge the perfectly clean surface. 

The twenty-four year old slowly moved his way from the display case to the lower portion of the counter where the register was stationed, hoping to catch the attention of the man behind the counter without having to speak up. Keith shifted his weight from one foot to the other awkwardly, a slight spike of irritation flared in his veins before it gave way to nerves when he realize he was indeed going to have to speak up to get the worker’s attention.

“Uh, excuse-” The raven started - voice barely above a whisper - clearing his throat before trying again, “excuse me?” The adult really didn’t want to say anything, would have much rather waited it out until he was noticed, but his head and veins seemed to be screaming for their beginning dose of caffeine. Keith fell silent as he waited for the man to turn around, absently scratching at his wrist, the skin suddenly burning with a slight irritation.

 

Shiro jumped, surprised by the sound of a voice coming from behind him, albeit a rather raspy and tired sounding one. He  _ really  _  needed to get that bell on the door as soon as he could, hopefully to prevent situations like this from happening again. The black haired man turned around a polite smile on his face, “Hello there, how long have you been standing there? Actually don’t answer that, sorry about not noticing you. Welcome to Black Lion Cof-” he was cut off by a panicked shriek piercing the air.

“Shiro?! Could you come back here? I think I broke...something!”

“Ah! Lance, don’t scream like that, I could have dropped my croissants!”

Shiro sighed, leave it to Lance to break something on their first day of business. Stormy eyes cast an apologetic glance towards their first and only customer at the moment, though crinkled slightly in amusement at the silent laughter that came from the other man at Hunk’s outburst. The shop owner was able to make out the words mouthed in his direction, “First day,” that was accompanied by what he presumed was a questioning tilt of a head. He simply nodded, smile taking on a strained appearance before responding to his employee, “Okay, I’ll come take a look. Why don’t you come take this order for me in the meantime?” 

Lance emerged from the kitchen, at least having the decency to have a bashful smile painted on his face as he rubbed the back of his neck, murmuring an apology as he past by Shiro. The brunet took his employer’s place at the counter, “Alrighty then, what can I get started for ya? A caramel latte? It is as sweet as you look,” the words seemed to roll of his tongue with practised ease. 

Neither Lance, nor the man on the other side of the counter noticed the look Shiro threw over his shoulder in the direction of the violet-eyed male, a delayed reaction to the pins and needles sensation that seemed to spiral out from under the soulmark from the sudden increase in distance to the stranger. It reminded Shiro of the sudden temperature change; when he would walk into a warm building after trekking through the harsh winters back home in Denver.

 

Keith had to stifle his laughter at the sudden yelling coming from behind the doors, that he now assumed led to the kitchen. At the answering nod to his silent question, the raven gestured for ‘Shiro’ -who he assumed was the store owner- to shoo, urging him to go and see what the problem was. As much as Keith really didn’t want to see such an attractive barista leave, he was rather appreciative of the great assets that the owner had unknowingly blessed him with. Truly, a beautiful sight to behold, but it also left a vague feeling of emptiness that began to swim and settle in the pit of the raven’s stomach.

Keith’s attention was drawn back to the tanned man in front of him as his brain filled him in on the words spoken to him, his face scrunched up in a confused scowl at the pick-up line that was accompanied with an eye-roll. Taking a breath to help refocus his thoughts back to his original goal, he let it out in a quiet sight before speaking, “Uh, yeah. May I get a large black coffee with dark chocolate syrup and one croissant?” He asked, well, ordered anyways.

 

Lance nodded along as he listened to the man order, resisting the urge to gag at the mention of the bitter chocolate,  _ ‘How can anyone like that stuff? It is way to bitter, and not nearly enough sugar in it, but to add it to plain, black coffee with nothing to cut the bitterness? That literally sounds like the worst thing ever.’  _ The brunet punched the order into the register, “Sure thing, that’ll be $4.50 with tax,” he paused for a moment before adding, “Nice mullet. Very ‘80s...kind of outdated though, right?”

As if he could feel the rising tension in the air, Shiro paused what he was doing to poke his head out from behind the kitchen doors, shooting Lance a faint glare, “Lance! Stop harassing our first customer,” He scolded, voice taking on an authoritative tone. Stormy eyes softened at the sight of the Cuban’s back going ramrod straight and a muffled ‘Yes, sir’ reached his ears. Shiro risked one last glance at the aforementioned customer, quickly taking in the way those wild locks seemed to curl at the ends, framing a pale neck and almost forcing him to watch the way the soft lighting reflected off of startling violet eyes, giving then a slightly more indigo look. The owner retreated back into the kitchen after nodding to himself, reassured that Lance would leave the poor customer alone.

 

Keith fished out his wallet the back pocket of his jeans, pulling out a total of six dollars and placed it on the counter as the brown-haired barista prepared his order, handing him the warm croissant before beginning on the coffee, “Keep the change by the way.”

The raven left the pastry on the counter for the time being, propping a hand up on his hip, a natural stance he took when his inner sass was about to come out, “So what if my hair is a little bit outdated? At least I didn’t break something on the first day of business before even having a single customer.” Was it a low blow? Probably, but Keith happened to personally like his hair (seeing as how he had cut it himself and didn’t completely butcher it), it was one of the few things he was prideful of. Besides, his usual ‘Be Civil’ filter was currently offline from lack of caffeine, so it was a fair comeback in the raven’s book.

 

Lance promptly paused his search for the dark chocolate syrup as the words finished leaving the shorter man on the opposite side of the counter, full cup of hot coffee in one and the other frozen in place reaching towards the cabinet above the espresso machine. The Cuban attempted to sputter out a response, but simply opened and closed his mouth multiple times. An unintentional impersonation of a fish as his train of thought derailed. 

Shiro emerged once more from the kitchen, bottle of the syrup in question help in his left hand, easily stepping past Lance and using his left hand to take the cup of joe. He placed the cup on the counter before pouring the additive into the black liquid, “That is enough Lance, go help Hunk with the rest of the pastries before anyone else gets here.” The black haired adult offered the shorter man a soft smile, soon handing over the stirred coffee and pushing the pastry closer to the edge of the counter.

“Thank you coming, hope you enjoy. I apologize about Lance. He means well, but unfortunately, more often than not, he doesn’t have a working filter,” Shiro held up a hand in a ‘wait here’ sort of movement before fetching another croissant from the display case, “Take this one too. On the house for being our first guest of honor.” He couldn’t stop the warm grin that spread across his face as the other man’s adorably confused face at the prospect of being given a free pastry. Shiro couldn’t shake the feeling that  this man was going to be important somehow, and not just as their first customer nor as one of the few people that leave Lance speechless from dragging him, but possibly for something else. 

 

The raven threw Lance a rather cocky sneer as the brunet hung his head and retreated back behind the swinging doors. It didn’t take long for Keith’s gaze to be drawn back to the owner as he carefully took the coffee and pastries given to him, albeit a tad confused as to why he was being given a second, free croissant, but decided against questioning it. It was almost intoxicating, the way his heart seemed to flutter in his chest and the sudden burst of warmth that sparked under his skin as his fingers brushed against Shiro’s when he was taking the cup of coffee from the taller man. 

“It’s whatever. Thanks for the coffee and stuff. With y’all being right here, it saves me an almost twenty minute commute to the other coffee shop in town and then dealing with cold pastries by the time I get back home. So, thanks for being closer too, I guess,” Keith trailed off, rambling at this point from the sudden swell of emotions flowing through his veins.  _ ‘What the fuck, Keith? He doesn’t care about your life story, just shut up already,’  _ and with that thought, the raven let out a awkward, nervous chuckle, casting his gaze off to the side instead of taking in the calm that radiated from those storm cloud colored eyes. He raised the hand with the pastries and gave a small parting wave as he turned on his heel and walked out of the quaint bistro, shaking his head at himself as he stumbled back through the doors of his own shop.

 

Shiro bit his lip to keep his grin from turning into a full blown smile, at the other man’s rambling. He couldn’t deny that there was something entrancing about the violet eyed man; the way he looked, the way he spoke, the way the tacky jacket he wore seemed to fit him perfectly, the man just seemed,  _ beautiful.  _ Grey eyes sparkled with mirth and he waved distracted as the shorter adult departed, unable to take his eyes off of the man.

It wasn’t until the door closed with a quiet hiss, did Shiro return to his senses, taking notice of the intense burning in his arm that was beginning to fade. He had to check to make sure he hadn’t accidentally spilt coffee on himself. Realizing, it was just the tattoo on his arm, Shiro glanced over at Lance, who apparently had been talking to him, at least for the past thirty seconds, but the employer couldn’t seem to recall a work he had just heard. 

So in turn, he apologized to the dishwasher, “Sorry, Lance, but what were you saying?”

“I said, that guy’s hair  _ WAS _ outdated!”

“I happened to like his hair,” Shiro argued, a little defensively. Why? He had no idea.

 

Keith hadn’t realized how irritated his wrist had been or the way heat seemed to be flowing through his veins until it all abruptly stopped as he stepped into his shop. A frown grew across his face at the sort of emptiness that settled in his chest, like he was missing something important, a part of himself that appeared to have just been ripped out. He took a seat on the bar stool behind the counter, placing the cup of coffee and pastries down before pulling out his calendar to see who had an appointment with him today to either pick up or drop off a package. 

The raven absently nibbled at the croissants, blinking in shock at the way the bread seemed to just melt in his mouth. It was at least twenty times better than the same pastry had been at Alternate Realities, and before he knew it, Keith had eaten both pieces of bread. The realization left him slightly saddened, but it was quickly forgotten as he picked up the cup of coffee and placed it against his lips. Dark eyelashes fluttered enjoyably as the liquid rolled over his tongue. The coffee was easily the best he had ever had, there was just enough syrup to taste the dark chocolate, but not enough to completely get rid of the pleasantly bitter taste of black coffee. 

_ ‘Perhaps I will have to make going to the Black Lion my new morning routine. If not just for the amazing coffee and pastries, than at least to get the chance to possibly see Shiro again.’  _

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated :)


End file.
